How Content Marketing Can Improve Brands' Online Marketing

This week's Future of Engagement features David Spark who heads up Spark Media Solutions and contributor to Mashable. Spark kicks off the interview explaining why content creation is so important saying, "content is the currency for social media and search."

Spark also says brands can't "market and PR" their way into content creation and social media. He advises brands that are considering content creation to focus on topics of interest related to the brand in question as opposed to simply publishing product information.

In his consulting work, spark finds that while brands realize they need content that clearly differentiates them from their competitors, most do not have any of these assets. He advises brands interested in getting their content syndicated to contact top sites and blog in their space (using Technorati as an example), researching the media outlets' guest posting guidelines and making sure your submitted content does not sell your product but, rather, offers tangible and relevant business advice or useful research. It's basically an "expert opinion" strategy and the byline bio with links included in the post will drive traffic and inquiries.

Spark also notes this content strategy can help a brand's SEO efforts because search engines will increase a brand's page rank (which affects position in search results) if a highly read, highly trafficked site is linking to the brand.